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Posted By: D. C. Markel

As someone who used to read a lot of Bill James and passionately studied Sabermetrics, I feel the whole concept of Home Run King is way overblown and should be ignored. If you look at the all-time list of Slugging Percentage Leaders, which is a better indication of hitting for power based on the number of at-bats, the statistics may be surprising, (except for Ruth of course) - especially when you see where Mantle, Mays and Aaron rank:

1. B Ruth .690
2. T Williams .634
3. L Gehrig .632
4. J Foxx .609
5. B Bonds .607
6. H Greenberg .605
7. M Ramirez* .593
8. M McGwire .588
9. J DiMaggio .579
10. A Rodriguez* .578
11. R Hornsby .577
12. V Guerrero* .575
13. T Helton* .574
14. L Walker .565
15. A Belle .564
16. J Mize .562
17. J Gonzalez* .561
18. J Thome* .560
19. S Musial .559
21. M Mantle .557
21. W Mays .557
22. H Aaron .555
22. F Thomas* .555
24. C Jones* .548
24. R Kiner .548

In short, MLB needs to just downplay HR King and make a big push to hype the idea of "Slugging King".